Customer Reviews

A Blood-Dimmed Tide

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Elon is gifted writer with an even-handed perspective. His analysis of history, and the people who make it, is rich and personalized. Littered throughout his reports are nuggets of little known facts which greatly enhance the reading experience. His detail of observation and grip on the facts make you trust him. Its a reflection of the author's long association + first-hand experience with the issues, and wisdom. The book variously reads like a report, biography, travelogue, and history. The one I enjoyed most was the piece on Alexandria - made wish I could see the place.

You know how it is when you read editorials of respected newspapers/magazines - hoping to get a wise and real perspective on issues - this book is a bit like that.

A blood-dimmed time is a fine and worthwhile book. Amos Elon is an intellectual in the midst of the war zone. Though his book ends before this current war, he is always lucid, always eloquent and full of insights from Jerusalem.

I don't think this book is only for the "non-radical left-wing Israeli ideologist" as another review put it (perhaps just a throwaway line). For anyone wanting a deeper insight into the mess that Israel-Palestine has become, this book shows just how many opportunities for peace have been missed on all sides.

Written with balance, insight, and humour, it's remarkably entertaining considering the subject. The "Letter from Alexandria" is great, especially the mention of its denizen "Captain Jorge y Nelken-Waldberg ... a Romanian with a Swedish-Spanish name, United States citizenship, and a commission in the Argentine army, who edited the local French newspaper. He was born Jewish, but was a dignitary of the Alexandria Greek Orthodox Church". Certainly was a cosmopolitan place.

But my favourite section is the the inside story on how a "couple of nuts" engineered the 1993 Oslo accord.

A wonderful collection of essays written with wit and humanity, by one who was very much there.

The introduction alone provides a good starting point for anyone who wants to gain insight into the hundred year old Arab Israeli conflict. Amongst other things, Elon describes the experience of reserve duty in the six-day war, Israels political paralysis in dealing with the West Bank, Gaza and the Palestinians, and economic crisis under the Begin government. The most astounding essays in the book include those on trips to Egypt and Jordan on the verge of the 1978 and 1994 peace treaties. He describes how ordinary Egyptians welcomed him in an extraordinary Cairo bus scene, with cries of "Israel good" and "Peace Good". Later chapters deal with Israels coalition governments, which themselves were a major obstacle to reaching peace, most notably with Yitzhak Shamir's veto of Peres' "Jordanian Option". This book is very "left", but doesnt stink of agenda the way the work of the "New Historians" does. Every non-radical left-wing Israeli ideologist should read it.

Amos Elon's writings, even years later, give a perspective on the eternal arab-israel disputes that cannot be found elsewhere.